Customer Reviews

The Complete I Hate to Cook Cookbook

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Here's a woman after my own heart: she hates to cook and is unashamed to admit this. The manner in which Miss Bracken admits is rife with humour and finesse ~ plus she tosses into the bargain 180 quick, easy, housewife tested recipes (this book was published in the '60s ~ 1960 to be exact) that anyone can make, even those hostile toward kitchen environs. Miss Bracken's wit is peppery (note the food connotation), vinegary (ditto), and her prose is salted (!) through with references to classic literature, tidbits of common sense advice, and slams at 'pop' psychology (as hilarious then as it remains today). Here's a sampling of (some of) what you're in for with this read: 'The Leftover, or Every Family Needs a Dog'; 'Spuds and Other Starches, or Ballast is a Girl's Best Friend'; 'Potluck Supper, or How to Bring Water For the Lemonade'; 'Luncheon for the Girls, or Wait Until You Taste Maybelle's Peanut Butter Aspic'. In between the pages of these chapters you'll find recipes for such tasties as: 'Skid Road Stroganoff', 'Sub Gum Yuk', 'Oddment', 'Old Faithful', and, appropo for the era, 'Beetniks' (a nifty way of fixing shredded pickled red beets). If you catch a whiff of the droll and acerbic, you are quite correct. Peg Bracken is a jewel. Very popular in the Sixties and Seventies, she also published an Appendix to 'The I Hate To Cook Book', plus several other books including 'The I Hate To Housekeep Book', 'A Window Over the Sink', 'I Try To Behave Myself' (etiquette), 'But I Wouldn't Have Missed It For The World' (travel), and 'On Getting Old For The First Time'. In all of these, she never misses a beat, her timing is impeccable. The sort of woman you'd love to have for a friend or neighbour, especially when one runs out of sugar and can't find the car keys. I highly recommend you begin your Bracken odyssey with this book, and see where it leads you. Enhanced by Hilary Knight's warm and witty line drawings.

Peg Bracken's book is for those of us who look at Martha Stewart and want to bang our heads against the wall. Most of the recipes create simple, "normal" food, in relatively small amounts of time. Her advice is funny and straightforward. The book is a pleasure to read, as well as to cook from. I've had luck with all but one of the recipes I've tried -- the one that "failed" came out okay, but my tastebuds gave it a bad grade. The best of the lot are "Sweep Steak." "Innocent Chicken," and "Boeuf and Oeufplant," but there are still more that I'd like to try out. This book is especially helpful for people just starting to keep house on their own; Peg Bracken's insights help keep a light perspective on the entire domestic endeavor.

I write cookbooks, and I collect cookbooks, and this is my hands-down favorite. Bracken writes incredibly well; she's both clear and very funny. The recipes are for real food the family will like. Bracken addresses all sorts of real-life food situations -- the family get-together, the casual gathering after the kids' soccer game, the late night snack, the potluck supper. She makes the valuable points that recipes are resilient, that you can and should go with your own tastes, cutting back or leaving out what you don't like, adding more of what you do. She demystifies cooking, something that is essential for the currently generation of young adults who grew up in non-cooking households.

And the food tastes good.

I openly admit that several of the recipes that have appeared in my cookbooks are adaptations (usually for nutritional purposes) of recipes I got from Peg Bracken. Imitation is definitely the sincerest form of flattery. I only hope to be as good a cookbook writer as she.

You want this book. You need this book. Buy this book now.

All of the things you want in a recipe, AND this book is funny!
I bought this a few months ago and hadn't used it since I HATE TO COOK! Picked it up to make pork chops (for the first time in my life) They were fast, simple, and tasted fantastic. The directions are easy the ingredients are things that you have. It almost made cooking a pleasure and a joy. I recommend this book for everyone who hates to cook but loves to eat and can't eat out all the time.

My mother had the I Hate To Cook Book when I was growing up in the 60s. The recipes are good and fast (if not very healthy -- when was the last time you browned ground beef in a little oil?) and the text is just hilarious. The one I've always remembered is "let it simmer while you light a cigarette and stare sullenly at the sink." It's a lot of fun, especially for those days when only the food you grew up with will do.

How can you not love Peg Bracken? The wisdom she serves up is covered in a flaky, funny shell (probably one pre-mixed from the frozen section). I thought this book might be a little out of date, since it was written over 30 years ago -- but it's as helpful and entertaining today as it was then. My only question is, why haven't the rest of Braken's books been reissued? Time for a whole new group of readers to discover her timelessness!

My mother who hated to cook before me passed this book on to me with reverence. Even now, I prepare these recipes in minutes when unexpected company decides to stay. (They needn't know I don't spend any more time on the meal when I do have warning.) And I always get compliments. My rule is: no one needs to know how many cans were opened to make this meal.

It is a joy to read a book that is written by a kindred spirit in the kitchen.

This is a great book - it is fun to read and contains loads of simple, quick recipes that almost anyone could put together. It is honest and funny, urges the reader not to buy anything unless they really like it, and points out that soup out of the can is often just as tasty as canned soup that you "doctor up" with added herbs or whatever. There are recipes for every conceivable category of food! Really humorous!

The holidays are over, and once more--as it has been for the last 40 years--Lasagna Casserole was the star of my Christmas Eve buffet. I have the edition where Bracken writes, "Light a cigarette and stare sullenly while the ingredients simmer"--which seems to have been edited out of the later versions. I can't imagine life without this book. The caesar salad dressing, the chilly night chili, the salad with olives and cauliflower--they have been the background beat for my adult life. I am buying the "compleat" so I can have all the pages in order--and retire my old paperback editions to an appropriate shrine. Viva Peg Bracken!

This is the only cookbook I got for my wedding that I still have 32 years later. It is stained and torn and dog-earred but I wouldn't part with it. I buy a copy for every new bride I know.